A report published today by Friends of the Earth has found that energy demand from data centres has added three quarters of a billion euro to household bills in Ireland since 2015 and could add a further €1.5 billion over the next decade. This is the equivalent of adding a week's wages to bills for the poorest households. All of us here acknowledge that data centres are part of modern life but the circle the Tánaiste and his Government need to square is that if it is their industrial policy to continue to roll out energy-intensive data centres around the country, it is becoming a cost-of-living issue. We have been going on for years about the climate impacts. The Tánaiste's former colleague, Paschal Donohoe, talked about the water demands of data centres but this is now becoming a serious cost-of-living issue. If it is Government policy to allow unfettered growth in data centres, what is it going to do to ensure that it does not impose additional costs on households already struggling to pay their bills?

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